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If you have tried every way imaginable to avoid bankruptcy but find that you have no other way out of the situation, the first step you should take before filing is to consult with a bankruptcy attorney. A bankruptcy attorney can be hired or appointed by the court systems to help you through the court proceedings. If you decide to select your own attorney, make sure to select someone with previous experience in bankruptcy law, preferably someone who works specifically with bankruptcy.No matter which bankruptcy attorney you select, you should always be prepared to ask the attorney questions regarding your own case. Here is a list of questions you should always ask your attorney to make yourself more aware of your bankruptcy proceedings:* What type of bankruptcy is right for me?Keep in mind that the Federal court system in the United States has eight different types of bankruptcy filing available. Of course the two most popular are Chapter 13 and Chapter 7, but there are a variety of different details and rules that apply to each type of filing. A good bankruptcy attorney will be able to sift through your financial difficulties and recommend the best type of bankruptcy for you.* How do I file for bankruptcy?Filing for bankruptcy will need to be done in the state where you currently live. If you plan to remain represented by a bankruptcy attorney, their legal staff can help to prepare all of the paperwork that is necessary to present to the court system. If you simply want to use the bankruptcy attorney for a consultation, make sure you don't leave the attorney's office without the necessary paperwork to begin the bankruptcy process.* What type of fees will I owe?This is important to ask in regards to your bankruptcy attorney as well as the court system. Most bankruptcy attorneys will give a free consultation but any remaining time on the proceeding or in court will cost a fee. Some attorneys charge by the hour while others charge a flat fee for bankruptcy services. As well, the court systems usually charge a court fee connected with filing the case, administrative charges and extra Chapter 7 fees to pay a trustee in charge of the bankrupt account.* Where do I go to file my bankruptcy claim?Bankruptcy cases are handled by the federal court systems in every state. This usually means that the bankrupt party will need to give the bankruptcy paperwork to the state courthouse, usually in a state's capitol city. Your bankruptcy attorney should know the address and rules regarding whether or not paperwork can be sent by mail or if paperwork needs to be given in person.* What happens after filing for bankruptcy?Immediately after filing for bankruptcy, the court system will send out notification to creditors of the pending bankruptcy case. From this point on, creditors are considered to have a "restraining order" by the debtor and are not allowed to contact the debtor requesting payment. Depending on the type of bankruptcy, a hearing will be scheduled and deadlines will be set for creditors to file a claim and attend the hearing. Of course, all of the proceedings from here are dependent on the type of bankruptcy filed, so it is important to be in contact with your bankruptcy attorney who can more readily answer these questions.

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Bankruptcy which is also termed insolvency is when you legally declare your inability to pay back the debts that you owe to creditors. In most cases bankruptcy is instigated by the debtor and this is what is called "voluntary bankruptcy", while "involuntary bankruptcy" is the situation when the lender or creditor files a petition for bankruptcy to try and recover at least apart of the money that is due to him. In general most cases of bankruptcy are filed by the debtor. In short bankruptcy is a mechanism that informs all banks and creditors that a particular person or a company is no longer in a position to make any repayments already owed or will be able to repay any money that may be lent to them. Now you can even say that bankruptcy is a legal procedure by which an individual, an organization or a business declares their inability to repay loans taken. But which ever way you look at it there is always a stigma attached to it.Anyone can file for bankruptcy; only point is that the rules that govern various types of bankruptcy will vary. Typically bankruptcy is one of the most refined means of getting out of debt and the main purpose of filing for it is to try and offer a truly honest businessman who is up to his nose in debt a chance to start all over again. So it only goes to show that filing for bankruptcy is more for the benefit of the debtor who is unable pay his outstanding debts.Legally the theory behind bankruptcy is that a person should not be unjustly enriched at other people's expenses. A debtor most often may have taken loans from more than one person or company, so if he were to pay back only one of them that would be really unfair. So the law of bankruptcy is to ensure payment to all creditors based on the amount of properties and other assets that the defaulter can make available for repayment. In short the mechanism of bankruptcy came into being when it was rather clear that somebody had to do something about a situation that arose when a debtor borrows from one bank to pay off his debts to another when there was hardly any or in fact no money at all to pay off any loans taken in the first place.

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BANKRUPT LAWYERS FEES STILL RISING IN CHAPTER 7, SO DEBTORS' ONLY REALISTIC OPTION TO AFFORD FILING BANKRUPTCY TODAY MAY BE TO USE A PETITION PREPARERThe legal costs to prepare bankrupt petition, particularly using lawyers to do it, have continued to rise and rise since the U.S. Congress overhauled U.S. bankruptcy laws in 2005. These lawyers costs for bankruptcy have now progressively risen to the point where they have become simply too expensive for the American consumer filing for personal bankruptcy, according to several reports and studies made by the government and independent researchers. Indeed, so expensive that for a growing number of debtors, the lawyers fees for bankruptcy are PROHIBITIVELY expensive - that is, they are so high that, although those debtors fully qualify for and wish to file for bankruptcy protection, they are unable to file since they simply cannot afford it.For starters, a report issued in July 2008 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), said bankrupt lawyers' fees for individuals who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy court protection, increased by 51% since the new law, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act or BAPCP, took effect in October 2005. By that report's calculations, as of that time of that report, attorneys' fees for bankruptcy had risen by slightly more than 50 percent of its previous pre-2005 law costs.According to the said GAO report, since this new law, the average bankrupt lawyer's fee for a Chapter 7 case - the simplest type of bankruptcy which involves the debtor's assets, if at all he has any, being liquidated and his debts being wiped clean - climbed to $1,078 in February and March of 2007, as compared with $712 for the same period in 2005. For Chapter 13 type of bankruptcies - which is the type of bankruptcy which allows the debtor to develop a court-approved Repayment plan to repay the creditors - the attorney's median fee for handling it rose to $3,000 in February 2008, from $2,000 just before the law was passed.•So, what's the bankruptcy filer's option when you simply can't afford the bankruptcy lawyer's fees? Is it to prepare the bankrupt petition? To file without a lawyer? Or is it to file using a non-attorney expert such as a Petition Preparer Bankrupt?According to many experts, such increased and heavier lawyers fees for bankruptcy, has created a significant hurdle for financially strapped individuals to be able to file for bankruptcy, or, even more importantly, for such debtors to be able to avail themselves of their Constitutional right to seek the bankruptcy protection guaranteed them as Americans under Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution mandating Congress "to establish uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States" for all qualified citizens."That [the increased legal costs] is a significant amount of money for the average American family, let alone a family on the verge of bankruptcy," said University of Illinois law professor Robert Lawless. "It's very possible to be too poor to be in bankruptcy because you can't afford the filing."In effect, what it means is that practically the only thing that the 2005 "reform" bankruptcy law seem to have accomplished, is that it has made the bankruptcy lawyers richer.It has, on the other hand, woefully failed in the task of attaining the primary mission for which it had ostensibly been enacted - namely, to curtail the rate of filing bankruptcy among the American consumers. As we speak today, Americans are experiencing a remarkable rate of one bankruptcy case being filed every 20 seconds, with well over 2 million Americans involved in the filing of bankruptcy in the 2008 fiscal year. Nationally, this represents a 20% increase over the already high levels in 2009. In Arizona, the increase was an astounding 52%. The Central District of California (Los Angeles) wasn't far behind with an incredible increase of 48.2% THE LOW COST ALTERNATIVES TO COSTLY BANKRUPTCY LAWYERS WHICH DEBTORS CAN WELL AFFORDSo, how do you file affordable personal bankruptcy? And how do you avoid high bankrupt lawyers fees?Fortunately for debtors, believe it or not, there are some one or two real good alternatives available for debtors which they can use to file for bankruptcy and get their bankruptcy protection alright - just as good as the average debtor would get who uses the expensive services of a lawyer. But, this time, at very low-cost and far less expensive cost that virtually every debtor can afford. And, believe it or not, it is an option that is specifically provided you by law under do U.S. bankruptcy Code.And what is that?Put simply, it is the option provided by the Bankruptcy Code itself. In a nutshell, the Code [specifically at Section 527(b) Of The Bankruptcy Code] provides the debtor THREE legitimate sources by which he/she can get assistance in the filing of his/her bankruptcy:1) basically, the debtor may study up on how to do it and do the bankruptcy work himself; or, 2) the debtor may hire a bankruptcy lawyer to do it for him; or, thirdly,) the debtor may hire a Federal government-approved person or agency known as a Bankruptcy Petition Preparer, meaning a competent or trained person or agency who is not an attorney but is expert at doing the bankruptcy papers, to do it for you. This expert's specialty is basically to prepare bankrupt petition and avoid or dramatically cut down on high bankrupt lawyers fees!Now, we'll just assume that you do not want to or just don't have the knowledge or confidence to do the bankruptcy work yourself. FACT: As is crystal clear to all from the facts that are earlier set forth above, a large and still growing number of eligible debtors who wish to file for bankruptcy and are qualified, simply can't afford the bankruptcy lawyer or their high fees, and for such persons their only realistic "choice" otherwise is to go without the Constitutional right to protection of bankruptcy. And, given that reality, there seems to be ONLY one realistic choice left for the debtor who is serious about filing bankruptcy to adopt - selecting and hiring a competent and reliable Federal government-approved person or agency, known as a Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (also called Debt Relief Agency or Agent), to do it for you.A Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (assuming, at least, the one you select is a good and competent one among them) is an experienced or trained person or agency who is not an attorney, but who is expert at doing the bankruptcy papers and also knows intimately the different procedures involved in the filing and processing of bankruptcy cases. They charge at a mere fraction of what it would cost you using an attorney (since they don't charge, as bankruptcy attorneys do, "attorney rates" based on "per hour" billing. Compared to the lawyer's average fee of $150 to $2,500 today for a simple Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the average charge by the Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (the better ones among them) for the paperwork for the same Chapter 7, ranges anywhere from $190 to $250 - whopping a cost ratio of 1 to 10, or 1 to 15. THE BOTTOM LINE: Do you, perhaps, fall among those growing number of debtors in America today who just can't afford filing for bankruptcy simply because you can't afford the bankrupt lawyer's fees? Then, realistically, you really have just one option left for you - hiring a legally approved Petition Preparer Bankrupt or Debt Relief Agent, which is a position approved by Congress under the bankruptcy law, and letting him or her assist you in doing the bankruptcy papers and filing them at a far lower cost rate that you can usually afford POINTER: But the KEY is, you MUST be sure to hire a good, competent, proven and reliable one that can properly get the job done for you!NEED MORE INFORMATION?For more information on how to end the "too broke to even declare bankruptcy" problem by using a good Federally-approved Debt Relief Agency or Bankruptcy Document/Petition Preparer to do a successful bankruptcy for you at an incredibly low cost that you can well afford, or how, especially, to be sure to use a good, competent, proven company that you can well rely on to properly get the job done for you, please visit this site: http://www.afford-bankruptcy.com